Love is all you need yeah yeah yeah wooooo! (Top Ten Beatles Singles)

Member Name: GentleGenius

Product:	Top Ten Beatles Singles
Date:	18/04/09 (273 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some of the very best music ever to have been written

Disadvantages: It all came to an end too soon

As I have said on DooYoo probably loads of times before, The Beatles were a major part in my own musical development throughout the 1960s. Even though their total collection of music is somewhat less than other 60s bands such as The Stones, The Who and a few others, I never ever tire of listening to The Beatles. I must have heard most of their songs thousands of times in my life, and to my personal ear, they are as fresh today as they were way back then.

The only Beatles' song I don't like out of their whole collection, is "The Long & Winding Road". It just doesn't hit my spot at all and I think Phil Spector's production made it even worse. All the same though, I think that's pretty good going in that out of all The Beatles' material, there is only one song which I wish they hadn't recorded.

Although the title of this section of reviews is about our Top Ten Beatles' Singles, I'm going to have to disobey and span my own choice across all of The Beatles' work, as though they did release approximately 20 singles through the 1960s and one in 1970 (not counting re-releases and re-issues), I feel their 45rpm repertoire is too small from which to choose ten, as that would mean picking at least half of them - so, I'm including their album and EP stuff in my list. I also will find it extremely difficult to keep it to just ten, so I apologise in advance if as I reminisce and type, it happens to creep up to a top 15 or even a top 20.

Here goes, and this list is in no particular order of preference!

1. TWIST & SHOUT (appears on the Please Please Me album)

I love John's voice on this track (a cover of an old Isley Brothers song); raw and gravelly. It has been said (and I think it was confirmed by John himself) that the day the song was recorded, he had a sore throat, which allowed him to make his voice sound extra raw. I have some half lovely, half terrible memories of watching The Beatles perform Twist & Shout live on the Royal Variety Performance when I was aged about 9. It was the occasion when John delivered the "those in the cheaper seats clap your hands, and those in the expensive seats, rattle your jewellery" quip just before performing "Twist & Shout", which has gone down in pop music history. The terrible part of the memory for me is that I hated my primary school, and watching variety shows on TV on Sunday evenings was depressing, as it always meant that yet another week at school was just a few hours away. The lovely memories are simply from the point of view of history, and The Beatles performing wonderfully on that particular evening.

2. SHE SAID SHE SAID (appears on the Revolver album)

According to John, this song was based around a time when he visited Peter Fonda and they both took some acid together. Apparently (while tripping) Peter kept on saying that he knew what it was like to be dead, and after a while, him saying that was getting on John's nerves and spooking him too. I like the contrast in the song between Peter and his obsession with the land of the non-living alternating with John's observations on his own childhood - when he was a boy, everything was alright....obviously before things got messed up after the departure of his father, when his mother sent John to live with her sister Mimi. I also like the tune and the arrangement of this track, and it is so so so so very 1966 - to me 1966 was more of a musically experimental year than was 1967, as I see 1967 as the popularisation of what had happened before, rather than the innovation of it.

3. GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE (appears on the Revolver album)

For me, this is the 2nd best song that Paul McCartney has ever written (my no.1 choice of his songs is "Here Today" from his Tug Of War album). It used to be said, and I can see lots of truth in this, that whichever Beatle sung the main tune of any of their songs, he was the one who wrote it. Except for those written by George, and the tiny sprinkling of Ringo's offerings and a few cover versions, all Beatles' material is credited to Lennon & McCartney as a matter of course, regardless of which one of them wrote which song. For me this is a perfect, non-mawkish, very up in mood and strong love song which has a great tune and brilliant, albeit simple words. Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers in 1966 and Earth, Wind & Fire in 1978 did passable cover versions of this classic, but for me The Beatles' original stands head and shoulders above them.

4. I AM THE WALRUS (appears on the Magical Mystery Tour album)

John at his most surreal, poking a finger at what he saw as the ridiculousness of certain sections of society, delivers this song which has a tempo that's a cross between softly creeping and heavily plodding. I love the verbal images, and to listen to the song conjours up some rather bizarre cartoon images in my head that don't as such match the words. I love the surreality of the words, with all these amazing little twiddles and strange musical sounds appearing throughout the song.

5. NORWEGIAN WOOD (appears on the Rubber Soul album)

Apparently this was John's way of trying to let his then wife Cynthia, know that he'd had an affair. How much truth there is in that I have no idea, but it doesn't matter to me. I like the idea of the use of sitar on a song which is about something/someone Norwegian, and I love the tune - unusual and interesting - the Beatles were firmly by this time on the road to experimentation. It took me ages to "get" the last line, when the girl had "flown", leaving John asleep in the bath....."so I lit a fire, isn't it good, Norwegian wood!" I don't think I twigged until I was in my 40s.

6. GOLDEN SLUMBERS/CARRY THAT WEIGHT/THE END (Medley from the Abbey Road album)

This medley of songs for me is excrutiatingly special in that it's kind of like the finale to a finale, in that Abbey Road was their last official album, and this medley of tracks sort of seals their career together. Before it winds down to the slow bit, I love the rock bit of "The End".....know what I mean? The "love you, love you" bit. It sort of says it all really....I find it energising, yet simultaneously sad, as it signified the end of a truly wonderful era.

7. PLEASE PLEASE ME (their 2nd single,taken from the Please Please Me album)

This song is just good, pure fun! Pure pop, pure teen stuff, yet so very very good with a great tune, and that lovely Liverpool (probably Irish-influenced) slightly wistful sound. This was the first time I saw The Beatles shake their heads whilst chanting "Woooo".

8. NOWHERE MAN (appears on the Rubber Soul album)

I don't know why a lot of people feel that Rubber Soul is quite a long way down the list of quality Beatles' albums, as for me it's one of their best, and is a brilliant stepping stone from teen pop, into the later, more complex stuff. This album for me was when The Beatles began to change and experiment, and I find the result very interesting. Penned by John, he at the time claimed that "Nowhere Man" was written about himself, when he felt that he was in transition with one foot in his old world, and the other foot inside of the new world. It's hard for me to explain what the song really means to me, as it's all very subjective and thus impossible to put into words - maybe I was changing too, and as a 12-year-old, had one foot still back in childhood with the other foot hurtling (perhaps too fast) into my teenage world.

9. TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS (appears on the Revolver album)

Hypnotic, mesmerising, absorbing, mystical, even a little trippy (though I'm sure The Beatles would deny the song had anything to do with drugs, claiming it was about transcendental meditation), Tomorrow Never Knows for me is an interesting piece which sort of rolls in and out of itself in a delicious, rather pounding way. I love the backwards guitar, John's slightly muffled voice, and the little twiddly mewing guitar bits in the background. This is another track that can set off a psychedelic film show in my head.

10. I SAW HER STANDING THERE (appears on the Please Please Me album)

I'm not, never have been, and never will be a "dancey" type of person - but apart from some 1950s rock'n'roll music, this track makes me want to get up and take the floor. OK it's teen pop, but it's great teen pop....very R&R influenced, driving, energetic, and very atmospheric of that early 1960s coffee bar era.

11. REVOLUTION (appears on The Beatles album, aka The White Album)

Wonderful guitar work, and John delivers this sometimes harsh and sometimes gentle message to the world to get out there and change it! There's a fair bit of angst in the song whereby John states what he is and isn't prepared to do towards making the world a better place, and he puts his point of view across bluntly regarding what he feels will or won't work. It's just sad that his prophecy of "it's gonna be alright" didn't eventually come to fruition. Nice piece of rocked up rock'n'roll.

12. YER BLUES (appears on the Abbey Road album)

Stated to be a bit of a pi** take on blues in general, John comes up with some wonderfully depressive lines in this song. Harsh voiced, he belts it out in true Lennon angst style, and I love the line "feel so suicidal, even hate my rock & roll" - for me that sums up the feeling of being at the bottom of the pit of depressive despair perfectly. When I've been down there, I've hated my music too - yes even Van - and just haven't been able to listen to it. Although this song overall I believe is to be taken tongue in cheek, some of the lines are very hard-hitting and accurately (not to mention poetically) descriptive of having a bad case of "the blues".

13. I'VE GOT A FEELING (appears on the Let It Be album)

This is the only track that The Beatles recorded which I get a rock festival (as festivals were in the late 1960s/early 1970s) feeling from. Also, I hear a kind of an epitaph to the 60s in there, regardless of whether it was intended or not. Also I believe this is one of the rare songs penned jointly by Lennon & McCartney. If you listen carefully, you can hear the niggles and bad feeling between the band members by the intonations in their voices, and the kind of energy with which the instruments were played - or is it me imagining that?

14. MICHELLE (appears on the Rubber Soul album)

I'm not quite sure why I love this song so much, as I don't think it's one of the most skilful of Beatles' offerings. Maybe it's subjective in that, similarly to "Nowhere Man" above, it takes me back to a rather special time in my life where I was transforming from a child into a young adult. Each time I hear Michelle, I am transported back to the dark and gloomy science lab at my secondary school. I have no idea why, as I never heard it in there - our science teacher, bless her soul (underneath her formidable exterior, she was a sweetie), was far too strict to allow anything like radios in the classroom.

15. STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER (double "A" side single with Penny Lane released in 1967; taken from the Magical Mystery tour album)

When we all first heard this, we thought "what a weird, unusual tune". John harks back to his childhood again (as he does in quite a lot of his songs) to Strawberry Fields in Liverpool. This was at the height of John's LSD experimentation, and similarly to how it did with Syd Barrett, it took him very close to places, atmospheres and things which happened to him as a child. John found his way through that phase, whereas sadly Syd became permanently wedged in it and couldn't move on. Strawberry Fields Forever was a rather trippy sounding song, and was the first single by The Beatles of that genre. I love the way the song goes rather mad and off the wall at the end......where we get lots of weird noises and improvisations, then John uttering that infamous statement "cranberry sauce" which was interpreted by the "Paul is dead" brigade, as "I buried Paul".

16. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (released as a single in 1967)

This for me, and possibly for a lot of other people, was THE summer of love song above all others in 1967. This surely says it all - "it's easy....all you need is love". Pity people didn't take any proper, lasting notice of it. This song many years later took on a particular sadness, when at the end of the movie "Imagine", several people are filmed burning candles and holding a vigil for the murdered Lennon - with "All You Need Is Love" as the backing track.......a befitting monument to a giant of peace. On a lighter note, one strong memory I have of this song from 1967, was that I was on a week's holiday at Butlins in Clacton with a friend and her parents (I was 13 at the time). The holiday camp had a television room, and on Thursday evening, all the young people trooped in to watch Top Of The Pops. That week it was presented by Jimmy Saville, and at the end of the programme when the no.1 record was always played, Jimmy announced that The Beatles had been knocked off the no.1 spot by Engelbert Humperdinck with "The Last Waltz". This resounding groan went around the room, and everybody left in a huff - they were expecting to see The Beatles.

17. I'LL FOLLOW THE SUN (appears on the Beatles For Sale album)

This Paul penned song is just damned good. A nice, pretty little tune with some wistful undertones on the surface, but.....try and sing it! Unless you are a singer, it's a bloody hard song to get right.

18. GET BACK (1969 single taken from the Let It Be album)

How wonderful it must have been to be working or walking in the vicinity when The Beatles performed an impromptu live concert on the roof of the Apple building in February 1969. Penned largely by Paul, "Get Back" has a lovely rock & roll guitar riff, and some rather cheeky words. Released in the early summer of 1969, it takes me back strongly to my last few weeks at secondary school before being hurled into the big bad world. Even though The Beatles were pretty much at loggerheads with one another by this time, if you can manage to see the clip of them performing "Get Back" live on the Apple building roof, just clock the fact that despite the disharmony in their relationship with one another, professionally they were still full of energy, concentration, and enthusiasm when it came to making the last dregs of their music together. Of course, "Get Back" contains at the end, that classic line by John when the onlookers applauded......."I'd like to thank you all for coming, and I hope we pass the audition".

19. DON'T BOTHER ME (appears on the With The Beatles album)

It is my personal opinion that George's skill as a songwriter was very overshadowed by John and Paul. The "With The Beatles" album is a blend of cover versions and Lennon/McCartney penned originals, but for me the shining light on this whole piece of vinyl is George's "Don't Bother Me". He sings it kind of shyly, and still being very young at the time, he muffs the pronunciation (have I spelled that right???) of a couple of the words, but for me it's by far the best track on the album. My beloved dad couldn't stand The Beatles, as he was still stuck in the rock & roll era and just saw them as untalented, long-haired louts - he'd just hit 40, reaching the age where we start to be a little dubious about anything new, plus he was beginning to take an interest in classical music. He stepped outside of himself and bought me this album for Christmas 1963, and despite accidentally spilling some filling from a liqueur chocolate onto the cover, I treasured it.

20. JULIA (appears on The Beatles album, aka The White Album)

"Half of what I say is meaningless......Julia". Well John, maybe half of what you said in your songs was meaningless, but what about the other half? I suspect you were too embarrassed to reveal what you really were talking about sometimes. This song is a message from John to the memory of his dead mother - explaining to her how he'd developed as a person, how his life was changing and he was being drawn more and more towards Yoko Ono ("Ocean Child calls me") - [Yoko apparently means "Ocean Child" in Japanese]. I find this a positive, yet rather poignant song where maybe at the time John felt that the only person he could, apart from Yoko, talk to and share himself with regarding the changes that were happening to him, was his mother? Of course he couldn't talk to her in real life as she was dead, so what better way to do it than to write it down in a song!

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Well that's it, and sorry, it did run to 20 as I found it impossible to keep it to 10 or 15. The reason why I found it impossible to limit my choices, is because of the sheer diversity of all Beatles' music.

In three years' time, it will be the half-centennial anniversary of the first Beatles' UK entry into the singles charts, and I am wondering if there will be some kind of celebration? I'd imagine on the actual anniversary day of "Love Me Do" entering the charts, Radio 2 will have a Beatles' field day - and I hope I'm not wrong. My only wish would be that John and George were still alive to see their 50th anniversary, and if they were still with us, I wonder how John would react to it?

Thanks for reading!

Summary: My own selection from part of our heritage